Strange Economic Indicators

According to the Courant, business at the seedy motels along the Berlin Turnpike is not good.

I grew up in Newington, so I know the motels. They’re part of the scenery on the town’s busiest road. They were there long before the turnpike became the home of Wal-Mart, Circuit City and the like. Many of them predate I-91, built during the days when Route 5 was the major artery connecting Hartford and New Haven. The motels hung on by their fingernails even when the interstate took a lot of their traffic away. I counted, once, years ago, and picked out sixteen of them from the start of the Turnpike in Wethersfield down through Newington. I don’t remember if that included the ones in Berlin and Meriden.

A Berlin Turnpike without its sketchy motels would be a very different place indeed.

Considering the majority of “more exclusive” motels along the Wilbur-Cross / Berlin Turnpike offer hourly rates; this this recent article might illustrate at least one of the problems faced by both the innkeepers and some of their more entrepreneurial clientèle.

Overall, business along the pike can’t be all that bad, seeing as Dougies (home of the 2 foot long hot dog among other wonderful, highly recommended delicacies (such as hard to find, fried mushrooms)) now has two locations on the same road.

Speaking of convictions; anyone know how it is that Marcy Syms has never been apprehended for hijacking truckloads of mens clothing? Is there any other logical explanation for the even-cheaper-than-EBay pricing in that store?